Wrapping machine



Dec. 25, 1962 H. P. CURLEE ETAL WRAPPING MACHINE 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed Dec. 1, 1960 5 J l w W Nh\ v m m m. Mm mm m i n. w? U 0 i rill mm w@ wQ w m bw WW \\\\\\\m\ J Hm m 2 ,196 H. P. CURLEE ET AL 3,

WRAPPING MACHINE 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed Dec. 1, 1960 M 2 6 a L x 9 m o IW 0 7 |\I{I|| PM 6 Z 4 /5 M a L 0 9| 8 d ioill 0 7 :F 8 m h INVENTORS Harvey P Carlee 3/ RzchardECurlee United States Patent 3,069,824 WRAPPING MACHINE Harvey P. Curlee and Richard E. Curlee, Cary, N.C., assignors to Curlee Machinery Company, 11162., Cary, NC. Filed Dec. 1, 1960, Ser. No. 73,009 6 Claims. (Cl. 53133) This invention relates to a wrapping machine. In particular, the invention is directed to the automatic wrapping of baked goods, such a stacks of cookies or peanut butter sandwiches. The object of the invention is to produce a simple wrapping mechanism which is operable at relatively high speeds, to produce a novel wrapper forming cup, and to produce a'means of leaving unsealed the tip of a tri' angular flap of the finished wrapper package for forming a, finger pull for opening the package.

In general, these and other objects of the invention are obtained by means of a horizontal conveyor system coupled with means for moving stacks of articles into and out of flap forming cups and a heating and sealing iron. A sheet of wrapping material composed of cellophane or the like is pushed by a stack of articles into a cup in order to form an initial U-shaped fold around the back and sides of the stack and simultaneously fold down portions of the top and bottom flaps. A moving plate then closes one front flap against the front face of the package. The cupis then moved to wipe the front flap across a heating iron to seal these flaps. The partially wrapped stack is then pushed out of the cup and between slotted plates which fold down one of the remaining triangularly shaped top and bottom flaps, respectively, and into a heating iron. The stacks are then immediately pushed out of the heating iron, and in so doing, the final top and bottom triangularly shaped flaps are folded down and sealed except for the tips of the flaps which are left unsealed in order to provide finger pulls for opening the package by the ultimate user.

The means by which the objects of the invention are obtained are described more fully with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:

FIGURE 1 is a diagrammatic plan view of the wrapping machine;

FIGURES 1a to 1d are schematic views showing the status of the wrapper on the stack at various stations in the apparatus;

FIGURE 2 is a plan view of the primary wrapping cup;

FIGURE 3 is a front view of FIGURE 2;

FIGURE 4 is a cross-sectional view on the line 4-4 of FIGURE 3;

FIGURE 5 is a diagrammatic view showing the cup of FIGURES 2 to 4 in partially open position; and

FIGURE 6 is a front view of the final heating and sealing iron of FIGURE 1.

As shown in FIGURE 1, stacks 10 of crackers, cookies, or the like are transported with intermittent movement on a conveyor chain 11 to station A of the wrapping machine. At this station, the stack 10 is pushed by a plunger 12 into a sheet of wrapping material 14, and together with the sheet of material into a primary wrapping cup 16 so that the sheet of material has a U-shaped form covering the back and sides of the stack of cookies. At the same time, the upper and lower portions 14a and 14b of the back panel of the wrapper are folded down so that the shape of the wrapper is that as indicated in FIGURE la. The details of the operation of this cup are hereinafter more fully described with reference to FIGURES 2 to 5. After the stack has been thus partially wrapped, a plate 18 moves to the right across the front of the stack in the cup and serves to fold the outwardly projecting ICC strip of material against the front of the stack. Each cup 16 is fastened to an intermediately moving conveyor chain 20 which then moves to the right to station B and in so doing moves the stack across the face of a stationary plate 22 which folds the remaining outwardly projecting strip 14d of material over the previously folded strip and against the front of the stack. The cup then moves to Station C along a heat sealing iron 24 which presses against the front of the stack and heat seals the two folded front end portions of the wrapper, as schematically shown in FIGURE 1b. Further movement of the cup brings it to station D where, at a time when the cup 16 is stationary, a plunger 26 pushes the partially wrapped stack out of cup 16 and through station E which is composed of a pair of spaced plates 23, each containing a curved slot 30 and an open slot 31. As the projecting wrapping material strikes the leading edge 32 of plates 28, the lapped strips 14c and 14d are folded down to make a flap Me on each of the upper and lower sides of the stack, and the righthand upwardly projecting flap 14 in passing through slot 30 is folded down so that the wrapper has the appearance indicated in FIGURE 10. Flaps 14g pass unfolded through slot 31 and remain so as the package is pushed into station F consisting of the final heating iron 34. This heating iron has slots 36 for receiving the upper and lower extending flaps A plunger 40 then pushes the stack to the left and out of the iron, whereupon the remaining flaps 14g are folded down and sealed against the top and bottom of the stack, except for the tips I i/z of the flaps which remain unsealed to provide finger pulls, as indicated in the finished wrapped package shown in FiGURE ld. Conveyor chain 23 is an endless conveyor positioned in a vertical plane so that the cups travel along horizontal reaches of the chain.

As shown in FIGURES 2 to 5, each of the cups i6 is composed of a channel-shaped base block 50 which is adapted to be secured to chain 2%. A metal base plate 52 extends across the top of block 55} and is riveted thereto. Plate 52 has one end re-bent to form a spring abutment flange 54. A bell crank 56 is pivotally fastened by bolt 58 to plate 52 and base block 5%.. ,One arm 60 of bell crank 56 is held urged to the left against the stop 61 by means of the wire spring 62. On the free end of arm 60 is a vertically extending post 64; to which is fastened a side plate 66, which is movable with arm 60. Opposite arm an is a stationary arm 70 fixed to plate 52 which is extended into a vertical post '72 and to which is secured a stationary side plate '74.

Cup 16 is completed by an upper plate and a lower plate. The stationary lower plate at; is fastened by screws or the like to the plate 52. This plate has upwardly curved side flanges 82 for the purpose of guiding the wrapping material. For mounting the upper plate 84, a right-angled arm 36 is secured at one end by clamp 87 to the top of post 72 and has its free arm 88 extending across the width of the cup. Upper plate 84- has integral therewith a pair of cars 0 which have aligned holes by means of which plate 84 is pivotally hung on arm 88. Fixed to arm 88 and between the cars 90 is a block 92. Wire spring 94 is fastened to this block and bears upon the upper surface of plate 84 so as to urge the portion of the plate 34 lying between the side plates 65 and 74 in a downward direction. Plate 84 has a cam engageable rear portion 84a and downwardly curved side edges 85 which also function as wrapping material guides.

The purpose of the movable side plates 66 and the spring-pressed upper plate 84 is for stopping the stack being pushed into cup 16 while initially forming the wrapping material around the stack. As shown in FIG- URE 1, as the cup 16 reaches station A, the rear portion 84a of plate 84 passes beneath a stationary cam 100 and is pressed downwardly thereby to lift upwardly the cup portion of plate 84. Then immediately before plunger 12 pushes against stack it a plunger 102 moves into contact with the arm 56a of crank 56 to push the arm toward the cup and thus move side plate 66 outwardly. Plunger 102 is timed so that when the stack has advanced about two-thirds of the distance into the cup, plunger 102 is retracted and side plate 66 snapped closed by the action of spring 62. The effect of this is to slow the movement of the stack so that the stack will be stopped when it reaches the rear end of the side plates. Otherwise the stack due to its inertia would be pushed out of the open rear end of the cup. At the same time, the sheet of wrapping material 14 is drawn snugly and tautly across the back of the stack and along the sides thereof. Also, bottom panel 141) of the wrapper is folded in across the bottom of the stack by means of the bottom plate 80, while the top flap panel 14a of the wrapping material is brought downwardly almost into contact with the top of the stack by means of the top plate 84. After folding plate 18 has been activated to form front panel 140, cup 16 is advanced to the right in FIGURE 1 whereupon top plate rear portion 84a escapes from beneath cam 100 and the top plate 84 snaps down under the action of spring 94 so as to close the top flap panel 14a of the Wrapping material against the top of the stack. The overall elfect of this is to produce by one operation of cup 16 the enclosing of the back and sides of the stack 10 with wrapping material and at the same time produce the initial folding of the top and bottom flap panel portions of the wrapping material.

When the stack reaches station F, only one upper and one lower flap 14g needs to be folded and sealed. As shown in FIGURE 6, the folding iron 34 is composed of an upper plate 150 containing a transverse groove 36 and a lower plate 152 containing a similar groove. Communicating with grooves 36 in each plate are longitudinally extending grooves 154 which terminate short of the ends 156 of each plate. Consequently, as the stack is pushed out of the iron, the side portions of the triangular flap are pushed down and heat sealed against the package, while the apex or tip 14h of the triangular tab rides free through grooves 154 and is only momentarily pressed downward when passing under the end portions of the iron. The contact with the iron is only sufiicient to press the tip 14h downward flatly against the top of the package, without heating it sufficiently to seal it. This thus leaves an unsealed finger pull tip on the package.

The wrapping machine of this invention is a'very simple construction and is rapid and efiicient in operation. The plungers 12, 26, 40 and 102 are operated in synchronism by conventional driving means and to which the conveyor belt 20 is also synchronized. A conventional wrapping machine for stacks of crackers or cookies has a maximum output of about sixty packages a minute, as a higher speed would produce such forces as to cause excessive breakage of the fragile goods. The machine of this invention easily has an output of one hundred wrapped packages a minute without any breakage at all.

Having now described the means by which the objects of this invention are obtained, we claim:

1. A wrapper forming cup for a wrapping machine comprising a base block adapted to be attached to a conveyor chain, a pair of spaced posts joined to said base block, a pair of side plates attached to said posts with at least one post and its side plate being movable with respect to the other side plate, a bottom plate secured to said base block and extending between said side plates and spaced therefrom, a top plate co-extensive with said bottom plate, the spaces between the side, top and bottom plates being adapted to receive flaps extending outwardly of the plates from top, bottom, and side wrapper panels formed as a flat sheet of wrapping material is pushed by the article being wrapped between said side, top and bottom plates, and means for hingedly supporting said top plate on said base block for holding down the top wrapper panel on the article being enclosed by the wrapping material.

2. A wrapper forming cup as in claim 1, said top plate having a cam follower extension, and spring means attached to said top plate for urging said top plate toward said bottom plate.

3. A wrapper forming cup as in claim 2, further comprising a bell crank pivotally secured to said base block and movably supporting said movable post and its side late. p 4. A wrapper forming cup as in claim 3, said means for hingedly supporting said top plate comprising an arm fastened to the top of one of said posts and extending across said bottom plate, and ears joined to said top plate and pivotally mounted on said arm.

5. A wrapping machine comprising an article receiving cup having two side plates, top and bottom plates and opened opposite ends, means for moving the top plate and one side plate for restraining wrapping material partially enclosing an article pushed against a flat sheet of wrapping material and through one open end of said cup, means closing the wrapping material across the open side of the article, means for closing all but one pair of end flaps of wrapping material while pushing the article into a heating iron, and means for sealing said one pair of flaps except for the tip ends thereof in said heating iron.

6. A heating and wrapper flap sealing iron for a wrapping machine comprising upper and lower plates separated a distance equal to the thickness of the article to be wrapped, transverse grooves extending entirely across the facing surfaces of said plates for receiving unfolded flaps on said article, and longitudinal grooves of less depth than said transverse grooves in said facing surfaces and extending from said transverse grooves to adjacent the ends of said plates for leaving an unsealed finger pull tip on the end of each flap as the pair of flaps are closed and sealed when said article is pushed longitudinally through said flap sealing iron.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 762,255 Rose June 7, 1904 1,064,964 Dooley June 17,1913

1,203,592 Escobales Nov. 7, 1916 

